Ratan Tata never attended any of the Board meetings since 2013, to give Mistry more freedom: Tata Sons

The statement sent on Tuesday hits back at Cyrus Mistry’s allegations that he was not given ‘autonomy’ during his 4 year stint as chairman of Tata Sons. There were about 30 Board meetings in all these 3 years and the only one that Tata attended was on 24th OctobeDevina Sengupta | ET Bureau | November 08, 2016, 19:03 IST

MUMBAI: Tata Sons stated that their interim chairman Ratan Tata never attended any Board Meeting since 2013. And this was done to ‘allow Mr Cyrus Mistry the freedom to operate,’ it stated.

The statement sent on Tuesday hits back at Cyrus Mistry’s allegations that he was not given ‘autonomy’ during his 4 year stint as chairman of Tata Sons. There were about 30 Board meetings in all these 3 years and the only one that Tata attended was on 24th October.

The statement further claimed that Tata had retired and it was ‘unfair’ to target him. Ratan Tata attended the board meeting on 24th of October, which saw the ouster of Mistry.In the last two weeks, India Inc was witness to one of the largest board room battles with both sides exchanging letters and statements on how the other party went wrong.

The statement sent by Tata Sons on Tuesday said that a statute was added in the Tata Sons' Articles of Association when Ratan Tata retired in 2012 that allowed him to attend board meetings to give views on strategic issues, being the chairman emeritus, if requested by the board. Despite that, he ‘never attended a single meeting out of choice’.

Cyrus Mistry belongs to the Shapoorji and Palonji group that owns 18.4% of Tata Sons. Two third of the business house is owned by Tata Trusts. Ratan Tata is the chairman of the principal shareholder of Tata Sons - Tata Trusts, which include Sir Ratan Tata Trust and Sir Dorabji Tata Trust